http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking+News/Singapore/Story/STIStory_355721.html
Recession hits the dead too
Yishun temple to scrap prayer ceremony - costing up to $160k - for unclaimed graves
By Yen Feng
In 2007, the Nam Hong Siang Theon Temple, located 500m away from the site, decided to perform prayers for the deceased buried there. -- ST PHOTO: DESMOND FOO
MORE than 30,000 unclaimed graves in Yishun will receive prayers from a procession of Chinese priests today, a week ahead of the Qing Ming Festival which begins next Saturday.
The prayers, part of traditional rites during this time of the year as the Chinese dutifully spruce up their ancestors' tombs, are led by Yishun's Nam Hong Siang Theon Temple. This is its third and final year organising the event.
The graves are on a small hill near Block 299, at the junction of Yishun Avenue 2 and Yishun Ring Road. For more than 50 years, they lay buried there, unmarked and unvisited, until a small landslide in 2007 uncovered them.
That year, the Nam Hong Siang Theon Temple, located 500m away from the site, decided to perform prayers for the deceased buried there.
'Even though these graves had been forgotten, we want to remember the people who died, to honour them for their contribution to this country,' said Mr Jimmy Ang, the temple's deputy secretary.
But this will be the last year the temple will conduct the prayers, said Mr Lim See Sing, chairman of the Nam Hong Welfare Service Society, a charitable arm of the temple, citing financial difficulties in the economic recession.
He said: 'It takes a lot of money to organise a large-scale ceremony like this. Unless we are expressly asked to do this again, this will be our last time.'
Read the full story in today's edition of The Straits Times.
Recession hits the dead too
Yishun temple to scrap prayer ceremony - costing up to $160k - for unclaimed graves
By Yen Feng
In 2007, the Nam Hong Siang Theon Temple, located 500m away from the site, decided to perform prayers for the deceased buried there. -- ST PHOTO: DESMOND FOO
MORE than 30,000 unclaimed graves in Yishun will receive prayers from a procession of Chinese priests today, a week ahead of the Qing Ming Festival which begins next Saturday.
The prayers, part of traditional rites during this time of the year as the Chinese dutifully spruce up their ancestors' tombs, are led by Yishun's Nam Hong Siang Theon Temple. This is its third and final year organising the event.
The graves are on a small hill near Block 299, at the junction of Yishun Avenue 2 and Yishun Ring Road. For more than 50 years, they lay buried there, unmarked and unvisited, until a small landslide in 2007 uncovered them.
That year, the Nam Hong Siang Theon Temple, located 500m away from the site, decided to perform prayers for the deceased buried there.
'Even though these graves had been forgotten, we want to remember the people who died, to honour them for their contribution to this country,' said Mr Jimmy Ang, the temple's deputy secretary.
But this will be the last year the temple will conduct the prayers, said Mr Lim See Sing, chairman of the Nam Hong Welfare Service Society, a charitable arm of the temple, citing financial difficulties in the economic recession.
He said: 'It takes a lot of money to organise a large-scale ceremony like this. Unless we are expressly asked to do this again, this will be our last time.'
Read the full story in today's edition of The Straits Times.
